We put a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth. More than once, even.

Inspired yet? More Nobel laureates and millionaires are in the Obama administration than ever before. Feel a tingle down your leg maybe?

All of the pieces are in place for a remarkable turn of events.

For the first time in our history, a sitting president will face a primary challenge from a member of his own cabinet. If this isn’t hope and change, what is?

As Barack Obama’s poll numbers continue to plummet, one can only imagine Hillary Clinton, pacing about her office in the State Department, trying to decide when to resign her post and prepare for her second run for the White House. I give her to year’s end.

But before she takes that leap, let’s all recall how her remarkable ineptness opened the door for the current Nightmare in Chief.

Track back for a moment to the spring of 2008. Clinton was what odds makers call the “moral lock cinch” for her party’s nomination. She had the money. She had the machine. She even had Bill, a former president himself, remember? Were the stars aligned for this woman or what?

Set to become the first woman president, she also had managed to put in place a campaign brain trust that didn’t have the first clue about how their party distributed their delegates.

Now think about that for a second. Imagine you are Hillary Clinton. Millions in the bank. Beloved by Katie Couric. And you don’t have any idea of how your own party divvies up the votes needed to gain the nomination.

Honestly, are you really qualified to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world?

Are you getting the picture here? This is akin to having a box of matches and not understanding that they have to be struck for them to light. It’s that basic, and she’s that stupid. Yes, stupid.

It gets better.

Now imagine you’re the wheel who did get elected, Barack Hussein Obama. Picture a balmy fall, 2007 evening. You’re probably kicking around with some friends, plotting God knows what, wondering how you’d conned your way into the U.S. Senate, when you say: “I’m gonna run for president. You know, get my name out in public. Dazzle the sheep with my charisma. Maybe Hillary will even put me on the ticket with her.”

Your accomplices look up from their copies of “Community Organizing for Dummies” and nod. “Inspiring idea, Barry.”

The next thing you know, you’re the nominee and then … Well, that pretty much brings us up-to-speed, doesn’t it?

All of this ran through my mind during the president’s recent attempt to, as his chief of staff might say, capitalize on a crisis. This one brought to us by British Petroleum.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the president eventually made, as the fast-spreading viral joke goes, Jimmy Carter the happiest man on the planet. Carter thought for certain he would go to his grave as the worst president in modern history. Not any more.

From trillions spent on a so-called economy-saving stimulus package that has created no jobs, to trillions spent criminally bailing out banks that, in turn, have banked our tax dollars and profited by hundreds of millions — ack! It’s head-spinning how remarkably bad this president and his staff of Nobel laureates have been.

And now the Gulf of Mexico misery. Instead of taking charge, the president lobbied for a massive energy tax under the name of “cap and trade.” If we fall for it, we deserve it.

But remember this: Hillary Clinton got us in this mess in the first place. Obama and Clinton — the Democrats’ best and brightest.